* Power Ranks Don't Affect Combo Damage *

thank you, ill be waiting

Good catch.

If only devs were this attentive to detail.

The true ending was that Marauder Shields* killed Shepard, so our fight was always in vain. Yes, it was meant to have a dark, depressing ending, as so often in the old sci-fi classics the ME series took much inspiration from. It was the pressure from EA that forced them to create that silly alternate ending with limited time and resources.


*:

It slipped right through our "extensive testing".

Also viable if it wasn't for the Unskippables.

I hate that they don't scale with ranks.

want to know if they scale with difficulty.

and btw, what do you go for when the choice is between more power damage or more combo damage??

I summon:

EXTENSIVE TESTING. There was no need for a beta. We know nothing.

Combos aren't meant to be strong because powers are on separate cooldowns now. Combos are far easier to perform now. For example, Asari Sentinel can detonate an ammo power with Energy Drain and immediately detonate that ED with Throw all in the span of 1 second. In ME3, that's an instant kill on everything weaker than a Brute in an AoE. Not to mention, that's with any cooldown penalty. It's part of the reason why combat powers and especially grenade/cell powers don't detonate anymore.

They don't want that playstyle of running around and nuking spawns. It undermines the entire game and all the unique mechanics they put into enemies that can't survive that initial nuke. It makes run and gun offense the overwhelmingly better option in almost every situation in ME3. It's a huge reason why Platinum is essentially just boss spam instead of something actually coherent and challenging.

How often did anyone use Justicar's bubble outside of preference? How often would you use a similar power in MEAmp? Flip that around, and think of Barricade. In MEAmp, it has a distinct niche. If ME3 had barricade, it'd be utterly pointless outside of goofing around.

We really ought to stop comparing ME3 and MEA 1:1. I don't want to be that guy that screams 'they're totally different games!' but even slight changes such as powers being on separate cooldown throws a huge curveball into the design of the game. You can't change something like that without effecting everything else at the basic level.

Except they sold it to be exactly like ME3MP in their live streams. What the fuck is the point if powers do little to nothing and combos do little to nothing and five damn weapons are gold viable.

I didn't watch any livestreams about MEAmp so I honestly can't say either way, but I highly doubt they said its 'exactly like' anything, because they're coached NOT to say dumb things like that before they're allowed to go on livestreams or public promos, etc. And maybe its just me, but when it comes to promotional material, I don't equate "its like ME3" with "every mechanic is 1:1 exactly the same or better in a way that pleases me/everyone". 

Powers do plenty; I don't know where this sentiment comes from. Are we playing the same game? They're by no means balanced (which isn't the discussion), but ME3's powers weren't balanced or high impact on their own either, outside of... what? Flamer? Tactical Cloak? Which is still high impact. I don't why weapons were brought up, because I never disagreed on weapon balance in my post.

I'm not saying MEA is great, or as good as ME3. I don't think it is. I'm saying MEA is not ME3, and isn't supposed to be. Saying that combos don't do enough damage because they did more in ME3 isn't an argument, for reasons I already stated.

For the record, everything they said on livestreams and public promos, etc, was dumb.

Yea, but that's any prerelease promo livestream if we hang up the hype for a second.